


The Diamond Dragon Job

by ziazippy5379



Category: Leverage, The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Case Fic, Crossover, Heists, Is actually probably friends only, Kidnapping, Multi, Sort Of, Temporary Amnesia, at least for leverage, can be read as friends only, post show
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 00:49:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 7,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17090924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ziazippy5379/pseuds/ziazippy5379
Summary: Parker steals something that she shouldn't have from The Library. And they come to get it back.(You don't have to know anything about The Librarians though it is helpful)





	1. Parker

**Author's Note:**

  * For [idkimoutofideas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/idkimoutofideas/gifts).



> Happy winter holidays whichever you celebrate or don't!!! 
> 
> I'm not really sure which of your prompts this really is, but I think it hits a least a few of them.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Chapter titles are the point of view character.

The main thing that Parker was wondering as she crawled through the vent was why this building had vents like these. It was a library and was much too old for it to have vents like these. They were too new and too big for a place like this. As she continued to move towards her goal, she decided that it must be because it was a magic library or The Library as it was called by many. She still had no idea why this place had such large vents. It made no sense to have ones that were big enough for a person to crawl through in a place that needed to be so secure. But Parker wasn't about to complain about her task being made easier by bad planning on the architect's part.

 

There was a vent that led into a room just ahead of her position, so Parker began to make sure she was completely silent as she moved forward. When she got to the vent she looked down and got her first look at members of The Library. There were two of them and they were sparring. The two of them were going at it like their lives depended on it. Parker didn't think that either of them were anywhere near as good as Eliot, but together they may have stood some chance. She couldn't get a good look at either of their faces, but she could tell there was a man and a woman. The woman seemed to be the better fighter of them. It was tempting to stay and watch for a while longer, but Parker was on a mission and could not be distracted from it that easily.

 

So, she continued to crawl through the vents taking turns where she needed and pausing every so often to make sure she was still going the right direction. A few minutes after her first encounter she came across another room with someone in it.

 

This time it was a man fighting a sword. He also had a sword and the one he was fighting was flying. Parker was just willing to go with that since she was in a magic library. After a set of moves that were much more complicated than she understood the man took a step back. When he did the sword lowered its point. Parker then realized that the man was much older than his movements had suggested.

 

“I believe that should be the end of our session today,” he said. “I need to attend to my experiments.”

 

He went to the door and opened it. The sword flew off to somewhere else. Then the man left to go to wherever his lab was, and Parker started moving again. This time she came across another occupied room much faster. It was a lab like the one she assumed the man from the other room was heading to. But it was not occupied by him but by a woman. She was doing some sort of experiment on her bench when she suddenly put all the pieces down and started doing complicated math out loud and waving her hands in the air. Parker didn't like watching that, so she moved on as quickly as she could without making a sound.

 

She hoped that would be that occupied room that she would pass, but that bit of luck was not on her side. This room was familiar in an unsettling way. There was a single man sitting in front of a computer typing quickly and intently. It was the same way that Hardison did when he was prepping for a job. Normally that wouldn't bother her, but there was much of the equipment that he said was used for hacking and forging documents. And not only that but she could see a wall of equipment that looked almost like her own for heists. So, whoever this was, knew what he was doing.

 

Parker almost gave up and left at that point, but she knew what security lay ahead and knew she could beat it. So, she kept going and soon came upon the room she was looking for. She checked the room to make sure it was empty one last time and then dropped down into it. There were no sensors on the side of the room where she came in but there were closer to the object that was her goal.

 

She thought it was bad planning to only have sensors around the object, but she guessed it made it easier to show people through the room without having to take them down.

 

What the room lacked in coverage it made up for in variety. There were motion and temperature sensors as well as a laser grid. There was also a special magic sensor that Parker had never had the chance to go against in real life. Archie had been able to create one for her to practice with, but they were so rare that she hadn't even heard of anyone having one. That was until she had heard about The Library having one. As soon as she heard about it, she began to plan this heist.

 

Parker was wearing a specially made suit that blocked the temperature sensors. And the laser grid was visible, so she knew she could get through it. The motion sensors were more difficult, but she still had them under control. For a previous job Hardison had made a scrambler for this brand and so all she had to do was find the right frequency for them. Once that was done, she set down the scrambler and began the difficult task of tricking the magical system.

 

The way this system worked was it recognized a specific person's magical signature and let them pass through. So what Parker needed to do was convince the system that she was one of the people allowed through. The first thing she needed to do was isolate the signatures from each other. But before she could do that, she had to make sure that none of the other magic users in the building would sense what she was doing.

 

She pulled out the candle that she had made for this purpose. By lighting it the shield spell that had gone into it would be activated. Not only would the spell keep others from sensing the rest of the magic Parker would be using it would keep any unwanted spirits out. After the candle was lit, she set it where it would not get knocked over.

 

The next object that Parker pulled out was what looked like a small weaving loom, but with small script in an ancient language running all over it. Parker sat in front of it and began to use its magic. With it, she was able to pull apart and see the magic of the security system. At the part of the spell where it named the people allowed to pass through, Parker chose the one with the closest signature to her own and left it up on the loom. She then took out a piece of fabric that had a border in the same script as the loom. The piece was placed over the section that was meant to be copied and Parker activated that spell.

 

Now that she had the copy of the magical signature all she needed to do was make it show instead of hers. And that is the second place her suit came in. Inside on her wrists, ankles, and neckline were small strips of more enchanted fabric waiting for the signature to be attached. And with an incantation that was done.

 

It was then the time for her trip through the laser grid to begin. Since she hadn't known the set up beforehand, Parker had to take this one slow. So, began a routine that everyone had been telling her was gymnastics. She didn't care what it was called as long as it got the job done.

 

Less than a minute later Parker made it to the stand in the center. On it was her goal, The Diamond Dragon's Scale. It definitely wasn't made of diamond but as the name suggested it looked as though it could be. Parker wasn't sure if it came from an actual dragon or not, but she didn't care.

 

She knew there were no sensors directly linked to the stand, so the scale could just be taken off. And that is what she did. The gloves of the suit made sure that Parker did not touch it with her bare skin. She put it in the pouch she had that would keep The Library from sensing the scale's removal until it was too late.

 

Now that she had her prize, Parker made her way back out of The Library making sure not to leave any trace of her presence.


	2. Parker

When Parker made it back to the office it was empty. Eliot was most likely in the brewpub kitchen and she knew Hardison was at an all-day event. She thought it had to do with one of those games he was always playing.

 

She went and put her equipment away and changed into her normal attire. Then she sat in the main room to look at her prize. Parker would have liked to do it somewhere more secure but the lights in the safe room needed to be replaced.

 

She pulled the scale out using a silk glove and set it on the pouch. The Diamond Dragon's Scale looked exactly as what the name suggested. It appeared to be a diamond shaped like a scale. But it only looked that way to the untrained eye. Parker had a very well-trained eye for gemstones and while she could tell it wasn't diamond, she had no idea what it was. The material was like nothing she had seen before. Maybe it really was a dragon scale.

 

What made it really stand out was the size. The scale would have comfortably fit into Parker's hand if she were willing to pick it up for an extended period.

 

She was being careful because there was no telling what this could do. It had been behind some impressive security at The Library which was known for collecting dangerous magical artifacts. And with how much care had been put into guarding this one it had to do something. She knew that as long as she didn't leave it out of the pouch for too long it couldn't be tracked back to her.

 

Parker sat there looking at it for a while. It was fascinating in the mystery of its material, but she was much more captivated by the scale because of how she got it. She was proud that she had broken into somewhere that no one else had managed to and was able to tell the tale.

 

Parker straightened as she heard someone coming into the room. She quickly recognized the frantic footsteps as Amy's.

 

"Hey, Parker we need you out there. Multiple people called out or had to go and chief is about to snap," she said.

 

"Coming," Parker replied getting up.

 

She knew that if Eliot was in a bad enough state that Amy was worried, she needed to get out there. So, she went as fast as she could forgetting the scale sitting on the table.


	3. Hardison

"Thank you so much, Hardison. This could have caused so much trouble if it weren't for you," Sophie said on the other side of the phone.

 

"No problem. What have you two gotten yourselves into that you needed these done so fast?" Hardison asked.

 

He had gotten an urgent message from Nate and Sophie asking for him to update a couple of aliases. They needed it done as fast as possible, so he had left the meetup and gone back to the office. He would have done it there, but he needed his computer with backdoor access and the high-speed connection. It hadn't taken very long once he got back and had called Sophie to let them know they were good to go.

 

"We ran into an old acquaintance of mine who needed help. Who were we to say no when the safety of the world is at stake," Sophie said with a calm only she could pull off.

 

"Uh, do you need some help? It sounds pretty dangerous," he asked. There was no way for him to tell if she was being serious or not and he had to make sure.

 

"No. It's going well. We just needed these aliases done. I got to go now. Bye."

 

"Bye."

 

He barely had it out when Sophie hung up the phone. He set his phone down and decided to check in on another couple of aliases that he had set up for the team. Even though they were technically retired, he still kept plenty of them for Nate and Sophie in addition to those for Parker, Eliot, and himself.

 

But if he was going to work on those, he needed some orange soda. So, he headed to the kitchen and grabbed one. On his way back, he noticed something shiny on the table. He headed over to see what it was.

 

His jaw dropped when he saw it. A diamond the size of a mango sat on a black velvet pouch. It was bigger than any he had ever seen before.

 

Hardison didn't know where it had come from, but he had a pretty strong idea. It couldn't have been Eliot because he always leaves notes with stuff left on the table. Which meant it was probably Parker's. And when Parker left stuff out it usually meant it was for the others to admire. If she didn't want people interacting with her stuff it was put away somewhere where nobody could get at.

 

He wanted to see how heavy the diamond was. So, being careful to use the pouch, he did. He turned went to turn it a bit and since he was still holding his soda he slipped. His hand brushed the side of the stone.

 

And the world went dark.


	4. Parker

When the brewpub was finally closed and cleaned up it was well after midnight. Parker was tired from helping for a large part of the afternoon and the whole evening. And if she was tired then Eliot was exhausted. So, it was fair to both of them that they didn't immediately realize something was off.

 

Parker remembered that she hadn't put The Diamond Dragon's Scale away. She rushed over to the table to where it was supposed to be, and it was gone as was the pouch. There was no sign that it had ever been there.

 

"Is something wrong?" Eliot asked. He sounded as if he was really going the answer was going to be no.

 

"Something I left here is missing," Parker said. She was trying to keep her voice steady, so her panic wouldn't show.

 

"Let's look around to see if it just fell."

 

As he said that, Eliot was leaning down to start the process.

 

She did the same and began to look. She didn't see the scale anywhere. But kept at it just in case.

 

"Oh no," she let out barely above a whisper.

 

Lying up against the counter was a bottle of Hardison's orange soda.

 

Eliot must have heard her because he came over to see what was going on. And he saw the bottle too.

 

"That's not good," he said.

 

\---

 

After a few minutes of just looking between the bottle and each other, Parker decided that something had to start happening. She went over to the main desk whit the computer that was connected to the screen. After that time where she was in the office alone, she knew how to use the system well enough to get at the security system. She pulled up the footage of that day and ran it. The footage ran at a faster speed until she saw Hardison enter the room and slowed it down.

 

_Hardison went to the fridge and got out the orange soda. Then on his way back out he stopped and picked it up. The camera angle was wrong to see what happened but suddenly Hardison dropped both the scale and the soda and fell to the ground._

 

At that Eliot reached out and paused the video.

 

"What did he take from the table?" he asked.

 

"It's called The Diamond Dragon's Scale. I stole it," Parker managed to get out.

 

Seeing the footage of Hardison collapsing had thrown her. She hated seeing him get hurt in any way and knew that Eliot felt just as strongly as she did. He knew that she was having trouble and so he started the video again.

 

_Nothing happened for a while and then there was a flash around the visible door and three people tumbled through. There were two women and a man. They saw Hardison on the floor and moved toward him._

_The shorter of the two women spoke._

_"See, no problem getting us here."_

_"Cassandra, get the artifact. Ezekiel help me with him," the other woman said._

_"We're taking him?" the man, Ezekiel, asked with an Australian accent._

_"He's obviously been affected by the scale. We are more likely to be able to help him at the Library than here," her voice left no room for argument._

_The shorter woman used Parker's pouch to get the scale and the other two somehow managed to pick up Hardison even with the height difference between them. They went back through the same door they came in with the same flash of light._

 

This time Parker stopped the video. She was terrified. She had recognized the shorter woman and the man from what she stole the scale. The woman was the one from the lab and the man was the one who was probably a thief and hacker. She didn't see the other woman's face, but she appeared to be the one that had been sparing.

 

"Where exactly did you steal from?" Eliot growled out.

 

"The Library."

 

"Library's don't have that kinda stuff."

 

"No, The Library," she said with more emphasis.

 

"The magic one?" he was shocked out of the growling.

 

"Yes."

 

"I thought that didn't exist."

 

"It does."

 

"Why did you steal from them. You know the stories as well as anyone," he was back to growling.

 

"They had a system I've never seen before."

 

"Seriously?"

 

"Yes," she paused for a moment. "And I got an invitation to work there and I never went."

 

And that was the real reason she had. She had to prove even to just herself that she was as good as them. The Library was known to be impenetrable. She had to be better or she may have wasted her time.

 

"I see," Eliot was much gentler now. "Still you didn't have to take anything."

 

"I was going to take it back. If I hadn't rushed out to help and didn't put it away, they probably wouldn't have known it was gone."

 

"Okay. What now.”

 

“We get him back."


	5. Hardison

He woke up with a start. He sat up and looked around him and saw the room he was in was warm toned with lots of wood. He didn't recognize anything.

 

"Hey, you're awake," said a redheaded woman walking in. "I'm Cassandra. Can you tell me your name?"

 

He opened his mouth to answer her but didn't say anything.

 

"Can you understand me?"

 

"Yes," his voice was shaky.

 

"Okay, that's good," she had a smile on her face. "So, can you tell me your name?"

 

"I don't know it. I don't remember anything at all."

 

He didn't. He had no memory from before waking up in the room. It frightened him to not know anything and he didn't know why.

 

"Okay, okay. You need to breathe," Cassandra said.

 

She had come over and sat next to him. She didn't touch him for which he was grateful. He needed to breathe right. He wasn't doing that right.

 

It took a couple of minutes for him to calm down enough to breathe properly. When he did Cassandra was still just sitting with him.

 

"We will do everything we can to help you."

 

"What if you can't get my memory back?"

 

"There will be something even if we can't do that. Do you want to get some more rest now? You've had a lot to deal with."

 

After she mentioned it, he realized that he did feel tired after the freak out he had just gone through. So, he decided to lay back down, and he fell right back to sleep.


	6. Parker

The plan that Parker and Eliot had come up with wasn't the best, but they were working on a limited timetable. They had called Nate and Sophie to see if they could help but they were busy with something they could not get away from safely. They promised to come help as soon as they could. Due to Parker having gotten an invitation once they decided to use that as their in and to just gather some information. Then they would figure out their way to get Hardison out. She had kept it because she had been fascinated by the way the letters had appeared when she opened it. Even over a decade later it still looked like new. It had also changed the contact information as if it was still trying to get her to the Library. At least the name that had been used for it was one that she had Hardison keep up, so there was no worry of them finding out she was faking.

 

Which is how Parker found herself standing outside the Library’s entrance about to go in the proper way. She hesitated at the base of the driveway and looked at it. It appeared to be a base bridge, but she knew the difference. The way she had gotten in the first time was off to the side.

 

“What are you waiting for?” Eliot said through the earpiece.

 

“I don’t set off security on purpose,” she gritted out.

 

“They don’t even have it on that part.”

 

“You can’t be sure of that.”

 

But she set off on her walk up the drive to the door. Nothing happened like she thought it would and it still didn’t when she got up to the door. She looked at the door and noticed a doorbell. She shook her head a little. It made no sense for a secret organization to have one. She rang the bell and waited.

 

When the door opened it was the man who had been fighting the sword. He had a full suit on and an unamused look on his face.

 

“Can I help you?” with an annoyed tone to his voice.

 

“I got this, and it told me to come here,” Parker said holding out the invitation.

 

He took it from her and inspected it. He looked between it and her a few times before handing it back.

 

“I guess that the Library decided we needed another Librarian,” he sounded no less annoyed. “Very well, follow me.”

 

He began to walk into the depths and didn't look to make sure she was following. As soon as she entered the building, she felt her earbud go dead. She followed the man until they reached a pair of double doors. He pushed them open and Parker was shocked and stopped in her tracks. At no point during her heist had she seen anything like this room.

 

There was a large table in the center of the room and at the end closest to the door there was a huge book lying open. There were three desks around the sides she could see. A staircase hugged the curved far wall which led to a balcony. On the balcony and the floor beneath it were bookcases completely full of books. A card catalog was against the side of the staircase. And on every flat surface, there were books. There were books of every age and size.

 

“That does seem to be the typical reaction,” the man said showing amusement for the first time. “Wait here while I go find-”

 

He was cut off by a woman walking into the room. It was the taller woman. She had blonde hair and was wearing a sports coat over a plain t-shirt.

 

“Well, Flynn won’t be coming. He is stopping some sort of apocalypse. And claims he has all the help he needs. He apparently found a couple of thieves that are helping him,” she seemed disbelieving.

 

She walked over to one of the desks a started looking over the stuff on it.

 

“Who’s this?” she asked finally noticing Parker.

 

“She received an invitation to be a Librarian,” the man who still hadn’t given a name said.

 

“Oh. Welcome to the Library,” she seemed surprised. “I’m Eve Baird.”

 

Realizing he hadn’t introduced himself the man spoke up.

 

“My name is Jenkins.”

 

Then it was her turn. They were both looking at her expectantly. Not having Eliot in her ear was making it hard to remember what she needed to say. Even after all this time she still found it hard to grift without anyone in her ear.

 

“I’m is Mary Lind,” Parker said. “What exactly is this place?”

 

She had to stay in character so that meant not letting them know how much she knew. She also didn’t know what questions to ask so she decided to be quiet.

 

“This is The Library. We collect and store dangerous magical artifacts in order to keep the world safe from magic,” Eve said.

 

This was completely different from everything Parker had ever heard about the Library. She had heard that they just collected magic and kept it hidden. People were known to go missing when interacting with the Library. They were not known for helping others.

 

“Magic? That's not real,” Parker said.

 

“Yes, it is. And it's our job to keep it safe,” Jenkins said. “Come this way.”

 

Eve and Jenkins began to walk towards another door that looked like a closet. They opened the door and all three of them went through. And Parker was even more floored than before.

 

The place they entered seemed to go on endlessly. It was full as far as could be seen with more bookcases and stands that could have been in any museum. Right at the base of the stairs leading into the room were a pair of lion statues and some old looking artifacts. She hadn't realized just how big The Library was during her last trip.

 

“It's amazing,” she said.

 

“You can explore another time. Right now, we have to get you settled in,” said Eve.

 

“And our other situation,” Jenkins said quietly enough that she wasn't supposed to hear.

 

That comment threw her off the fact that she didn’t want to leave the main Library. They went back to the first room and found two people there. One was the thief, Ezekiel. And the other looked exactly like Eliot. As in the only difference was the length of their hair. She really wished that she could talk to Eliot.

 

“We still haven’t found anything,” the Eliot look-alike said. “It would really help a lot if we even knew what the artifact was. Why wasn’t it labeled when it came to the library?”

 

“That’s Jacob Stone our historian,” Eve told her indicating the man that had spoken. “And that is Ezekiel Jones.”

 

“The thief?” Parker couldn’t hold it in.

 

She blamed Hardison being missing for the fact she hadn’t put it together before. Ezekiel Jones got on both hers and Hardison’s nerves. Jones had the most annoying combination of their skills that meant they had to work together in order to beat him.

 

“You’ve heard of me?” Ezekiel asked smugly.

 

“You’re a menace,” she was trying to get back into character.

 

“What exactly do you do? And who are you anyways,” Jacob said suspiciously. He had almost the same accent as Eliot too.

 

“I’m Mary Lind. I inspect and appraise various artifacts from around the world. Especially those with different precious stones and metals.”

 

That was the cover that had been decided on for this alias. It was something that Parker could easily do with all her years of being a thief.

 

“I get why Jones would be a pest then,” Jacob said.

 

He seemed amused by her now.

 

“Then maybe you should look at this, Mary. We need to figure out what it is, so we can reverse its effects,” Eve said with a glare towards Ezekiel and Jacob.

 

She set out The Diamond Dragon’s Scale from the pouch Parker had stolen it with.

 

Parker moved forward and inspected the scale. She already knew what it was but had to keep her cover.

 

“Well, it looks almost like diamond but not quite. And the shape isn’t right for being handmade. It’s symmetrical in the wrong ways. The only thing I know that has these properties is The Diamond Dragon’s Scale.”

 

As soon as she said that Jenkins moved over to a bookcase and started looking for a book. He pulled one out and began to flip through the pages.

 

“Ah, here it is ‘The Diamond Dragon’s Scale’. It looks like to reverse the affects you need its partner ‘The Obsidian Dragon’s Scale’. They are scales that fell off of two sibling dragons during their last fight to the death. Their exact effects aren’t known,” he lectured off.

 

“We’ll see if we can track down its current location,” Ezekiel said dragging Jacob off.

 

“Is that normal?” Parker asked.

 

“For them? Yes,” Jenkins said with a put-upon sigh.

 

Before any of them could say anything else the door opened again, and the two people walked in. One was the woman, Cassandra.

 

The other was Hardison.


	7. Hardison

This time when he woke up, he felt much calmer. He still didn’t remember anything but that bothered him less than before. He was alone in the room and didn’t know if he could leave or not. So, he decided to search the room a bit.

 

There wasn’t much in the room other than the bed. The only other pieces of furniture were a pair of chairs and a small table. On the table was a glass of water which he thankfully drank. There were a few pieces of art on the walls but those only kept his interest for a little while.

 

Once he had gotten bored of what was in the room and no one had still come back to check on him he decided to explore. He left the room and was in a hallway that went on in both directions. So, he chose a direction and began to walk. All the doors along the hall he tried to open were locked.

 

Eventually, he came to one that wasn’t locked and when he opened it he found a lab. It was full of all sorts of equipment that he had no names for. And at the main bench was Cassandra. She was so engrossed in what she was doing that she didn’t notice him come in.

 

“Hey there,” he said trying not to startle her.

 

She still jumped when she heard him.

 

“Sorry. I didn’t hear you come in. I thought you would be asleep longer. I’ve been seeing if I could try and find a way to get your memory back.”

 

“Thanks. I just woke up alone and didn’t know what to do.”

 

“Have you remembered anything?”

 

“No, I only remember the last time we talked.”

 

He stood near the door afraid to go farther into the room lest he knock something over or break it. Cassandra seemed to realize that and came over to him.

 

“Let’s go see if the others have found anything.”

 

They headed out of the lab and back into the hall. This time it looked shorter than the last time he went through. They walked down the hall until they reached another room. In it were three people. Two blonde women and an older man. The man and one woman looked at them with little reaction, but the other one looked completely shocked.

 

“Our friend here woke up again and we wanted to see if there was any progress,” Cassandra said.

 

“We have determined what the artifact is and Mr. Stone and Mr. Jones are trying to track down where the one that should help him is,” the man responded.

 

“Oh, that’s Jenkins,” Cassandra said. “And that’s Eve.”

 

She gestured to the woman that hadn’t seemed shocked to see him. The one who had still looked a little unsettled and was staring at him. He had no idea why she would be so unsettled with his presence.

 

“And that is Mary. She just got here. The Library sent her an invitation,” Eve said.

 

“That’s great! We can always use more help around here,” Cassandra exclaimed.

 

“Do you want to stay here and help get her acquainted with the Library while I take our guest to get some food?” Jenkins said.

 

“Sure!”

 

Jenkins led him to a kitchen and began to gather food.


	8. Parker

Parker was shocked when she saw Hardison walk through the door. She really had no idea what could have happened to him, but she never would have thought that they would just let him walk around freely. He didn’t seem to recognize her either which really bothered her. All of this was so much that she didn’t hear what anyone was saying and before she knew it Jenkins was leading him out.

 

“I haven’t introduced myself yet. I’m Cassandra Cillian,” Cassandra said holding her hand out.

 

“Mary Lind.”

 

Cassandra and Eve began to show and tell her about The Library and what they did. It was a lot of information and she had a hard time focusing on it, but she figured it was a good idea to in order to stay on their good side. She needed them to be willing to give her the information she needed. At one point she heard Jacob and Ezekiel go through the room again saying they had a lead. After a while, Eve decided they needed a break and they sat to talk. Parker asked the question she had been wanting to for since they had started.

 

“What’s going on with the person that Jenkins took?”

 

Cassandra was the one who answered, “He got hit by the artifact you identified. His memory is gone.”

 

Her heart sank. She should have known better than to steal from someplace like The Library. And now Hardison was paying the price for her pride.

 

Not much later it was decided that she needed a tour of The Annex, which was the physical building they were in. The Library was actually a pocket dimension anchored there. She also learned that the flashing light and people appearing was from what they called the backdoor. It could let them go anywhere in the world they needed to and was attached to the same closet looking door that had taken them to the full Library earlier. The backdoor was the first stop on the tour.


	9. Eliot

After the panic of losing contact with Parker had subsided, Eliot decided to see if he could do anything. Hearing the name of the artifact that Parker had stolen had made him think of something, but it had taken him a while to figure out what it was. There was another artifact with a very similar name at a building downtown.

 

He was staking out the building when he saw a distinctive flash of light come from an alleyway nearby. He went straight over to it before whoever it was could leave it. And he was face to face with his brother.

 

It had been a long time since they had seen each other but recently they had begun talking again. Jake had learned what he was doing somehow and wanted to know what had happened to him. Eliot had explained and they had stayed in touch. Jake hadn’t told him much about what he did other than it wasn’t the rig anymore. Eliot now understood why. But he also made a huge shift in his idea of The Library because there was no way his brother would do the things he had heard.

 

“Eliot! What are you doing here?” Jake exclaimed.

 

“I’m shopping.”

 

It seemed to be as good of an excuse as any. Eliot saw that Jake was not alone.

 

“Who’s your friend?”

 

“That’s Ezekiel.  We work together,” Jake said over his friend who was about to answer. “And Ezekiel, this is my brother Eliot.”

 

“Eliot Spencer.”

 

Ezekiel’s face drained of color and confirmed his suspicions. This kid knew his reputation which meant either law enforcement or criminal. Eliot was going to bet on the latter.

 

At that moment Jake got a phone call and took it off to the side with a worried glance at his brother and friend.

 

“What’re you two up to,” Eliot asked Ezekiel.

 

Ezekiel hurried to answer, “We’re stealing something from there. It’s to help someone.”

 

“Need some help?”

 

“What?” Ezekiel squeaked.

 

“I ain't gonna let my brother get into trouble for stealing if I can help it.”

 

Eliot wasn't going to mention the fact that he knew the person they were most likely helping was Hardison.

 

Ezekiel looked nervous but like he was going to agree rather than get onto Eliot’s bad side.

 

Jake finished his phone call and came back over to them.

 

“Well, Flynn is back to saving the world with only the random people he finds,” he said. “What’s going on here?”

 

“I’m going to help you with this heist of yours,” Eliot said.

 

Jake appeared to want to argue but didn’t, “Fine. Let’s just get this going.”

 

The three of them headed into the building where the artifact, The Obsidian Dragon’s Scale, was being held. It was way in the back so they had to go through almost the whole place. The whole way in Ezekiel was doing something on his phone.

 

When they reached the case where the scale was it became clear what he was doing. The fire alarm went off and the building began to clear. Since they were in the back the area they were in cleared out first.

 

Ezekiel then switched his focus to opening the case. He had to hurry because fire alarms could only give them so much time. He managed to get the case open without any alarms getting set off. Jake pulled out a pouch and picked up the scale with it and enclosed it within.

 

Just as they were leaving the room a security guard saw them and reached for his radio. Before he could Eliot punched him out. But the noise of the encounter caused more guards to head their way. Eliot got between them and Jake and Ezekiel. He readied himself to fight their way out.

 

But before he had to Jake grabbed him and pulled him through the door next to them. There was another one of those flashes of light and they were in a completely different place. It as a room with a giant table and books everywhere. It must have been The Library.

 

Parker and the two women from the security footage came running in from one direction. And a man leading Hardison at a more sedate pace came from another.


	10. Hardison

He and Jenkins had a nice lunch together and then just sat in the kitchen with tea. There was a noise and Jenkins got up and gestured for him to follow. They went back to the room where they had left the women and saw them rushing in. Already in the room were three men looking a little ragged. Two of them looked identical except for their hair.

 

“We got it!” exclaimed the shorter haired of the identical men.

 

“Great!” came from Cassandra. “How do we use it?”

 

“The first thing to try should be to have our guest touch it. That is most likely how he lost his memory and do the reverse should be true,” said Jenkins.

 

“What is it?” he asked. If it was going to be messing with his memory, he wanted to know what it was.

 

“It’s The Obsidian Dragon’s Scale,” said Jenkins.

 

The man with the scale set it on the table being careful to get it out of the pouch without touching it. It was about the size of an avocado but flatter. It was a deep black color but had a slight transparency to it and was shiny like glass.

 

He reached out to it and touched it gently.

 

“Parker. Eliot,” was all Hardison got out before promptly dropping unconscious again.


	11. Parker

Parker watched as Hardison began to fall. Before could hit the floor, Eliot caught him and laid him on the floor. She rushed over to him and got down on the floor next to both of them.

 

“He should regain consciousness quicker this time. The magic is leaving instead of coming,” said Jenkins. “And I must assume that you are Parker.”

 

It wasn’t a question, but she answered anyway.

 

“Yes. I just had to get here and make sure Hardison was okay. It was my fault any of this happened.”

 

“Wait, you’re Parker. Like the Parker,” Ezekiel was sounding awed. “And you said Hardison. Like Alec Hardison.”

 

“Yes,” it was Eliot who responded glaring.

 

“You two are like the best thief and hacker there is. Other than me of course,” Ezekiel said.

 

“Of course,” Cassandra said with an eye roll.

 

“I’m more curious about how you faked the invitation,” said Eve.

 

Parker looked up at her and said, “I didn’t. I got that a long time ago. Just never got rid of it.”

 

Nobody was able to respond to that because Hardison chose that moment to wake up.

 

“Why are you being so loud.”

 

They got Hardison up off the floor and finished explaining what all happened. In exchange for letting them go with their memories intact, which is what happened to most of the people who got into the library, Parker agreed to tell them exactly how she broke in and got through all their security systems.

 

After all the explanations were given, they got ready to leave. When Parker stood up an envelope fell from her lap. She looked and saw the same had happened to Eliot and Hardison. They picked them up and opened them. The same lettering that she had seen appear so many years before appeared again. She saw the same happen for Hardison, but a slightly different message appeared on Eliot’s.

 

“This was your plan all along,” Jenkins said staring at the ceiling.

 

The lights flickered a few times.

 

“That was a ‘y’ in Morse code,” Paker said.

 

“Oh, joy.”


	12. Epilogue

The new librarians and guardian were discussing how they could continue their work as Leverage as well as work with The Library when the backdoor began to shake. Everyone jumped out and readied to have a fight. When it opened Flynn, Nate, and Sophie tumbled through covered in all sorts of stuff that may have included mud and blood.

 

“The world will not end today,” Flynn declared holding out an intricately carved bowl.

 

“So, you were serious when you said the safety of the world,” Hardison said to Sophie.

 

“Of course, I was,” she said indignantly.

 

“Is there somewhere we can clean up a little?” Nate asked.

 

And all three of them began laughing.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading and happy holidays!!!


End file.
